Iran is trying to drive the United States out of Iraq and would consider immediate American withdrawal a victory, the nominee for the nation’s top military job told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
Adm. Michael Mullen, who is widely expected to be confirmed as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Marine Gen. Peter Pace, made his statement in response to a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a strong defender of the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy.
“The Shia connection between Tehran and Baghdad is one of great concern; the influence that they have with the Badr, the Mahdi armies, is of great concern,” Mullen said in response to Graham’s question on relations between Iran and Iraq.
“[It would be] very difficult to predict how that would play specifically in terms of what Iran would do, but I think they’d be much more comfortable with a Shia-run government right next to them.”
Shiites were largely persecuted by ruling minority Sunnis during the reign of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Now the Iraqi government is Shiite-led.
Asked by Graham about U.S. prospects for “winning” in Iraq, Mullen said, “Based on the lack of political reconciliation at the government level ... I would be concerned about whether we’d be winning or not.”
Mullen said during his testimony that he is “especially concerned about the increasingly hostile role played by Iran” in the Middle East. He stressed that he supports diplomatic efforts to counter Iran’s destabilizing behavior.
“[I] hope their leaders will choose to act responsibly,” he said. “But I find their support for terrorism and their nuclear ambitions deeply troubling.”
Alongside Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who was nominated for the vice chairmanship, Mullen said that the war in Iraq is taking a heavy toll on the U.S. military, which, he added, “is not unbreakable.” Mullen stressed the need to plan for an “eventual drawdown” of U.S. forces there.
Several times during the hearing, Mullen expressed concern about the impact of a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops on the region’s stability. “I worry a lot about moves that would turn Iraq into a cauldron,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “That would be bad for the United States, bad for Iraq and bad for the region.”
At the same time, Mullen, the current chief of naval operations, acknowledged that the current force of 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq cannot be sustained beyond spring without extending the deployments of some of the personnel, which he opposes. He said that exceeding the current deployment ratio of 15 months in Iraq and 12 months at home would “break the forces.”
“Effectively, that means, as you also suggest, by next April, regardless of the conditions on the ground, the surge will end, because we simply will not be able to put manpower on the ground unless we extend rotations,” a senior member of the panel, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), said.
“Yes, sir, that is fair,” Mullen replied.
In order to achieve the deployment ratio of two years at home and one year deployed, the U.S. would have to reduce its presence by half in Iraq, Mullen said. The 2-to-1 ratio is the one Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined in a memo earlier this year. It would take up to four years to reach that goal, Mullen said.
Mullen told the panel that the surge, which sent about 30,000 more troops to Iraq, bringing U.S. troop levels there to 160,000, “is giving our operational commanders the forces they needed to execute more effective tactics and improve security.” He added, “Security is better; not great, but better.” He was critical of the Iraqi government for failing to take advantage of the “breathing space” the surge is providing to work towards national reconciliation.
“Barring that, no amount of troops in no amount of time will make much of a difference,” he said.
Mullen and Cartwright were nominated in June to succeed, respectively, Pace and Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr. Gates said he had decided against nominating Pace again out of concern that confirmation hearings would focus too much on the Iraq war and turn into a “divisive ordeal” for the nation. Pace’s two-year term ends Sept. 30.
|
